Explore our collections by historical period
3000000 BCE - 250000 BCE
The earliest stone tool traditions in southern Africa — Oldowan and Acheulean industries of early hominins, including discoveries from the Cradle of...
250000 BCE - 25000 BCE
Prepared-core technology, early symbolic behaviour and the emergence of modern humans — sites such as Sibudu, Blombos and Border Cave....
25000 BCE - 200
Hunter-gatherer and San communities — microlithic toolkits, rock art, ostrich-eggshell beadwork and rich ethnographic heritage....
200 - 1652
Farming communities, metallurgy and settlement — Early and Late Iron Age sites including Mapungubwe and the rise of complex societies....
1652 - 1910
European contact, colonisation and frontier history — historical archaeology of trade, conflict and changing landscapes....
1910 - Present
Twentieth-century to contemporary heritage — industrial, urban and recent archaeology across South Africa....
